“The school is in disarray,” said one of the teachers. “We don’t know what to
do. We don’t know who to ask for help.”

The teachers said they worry about letting students go to the restroom alone.
And they want to know what to tell children who seek help.

The four teachers requested anonymity because of concerns that they would
lose their jobs if identified.

Principal Socorro Gonzalez didn’t respond to a request for comment. But
Sherry Christian, the district’s executive director of student services, said
Thursday that the new effort at Spence will provide focus groups with parents,
encourage teachers to seek counseling and hold professional development about
stress management. The News began asking the district about the
teachers’ concerns earlier this week.

“We need to get more aggressive,” Christian said. “We are seeing things there
that are making us uneasy and happening more often than we think it should.”

Connie Wilson, the district’s director of psychological and social services,
said counselors conduct suicide-risk assessments on students and teachers
receive annual training on suicide warning signs. Counselors can also recommend
that parents take their children to psychologists and psychiatrists, she
said.

“I know that it is anxiety-provoking for teachers who have to worry about the
academics and general well-being of students,” Wilson said. “They are being
asked to be very, very vigilant.”

The Spenceteachers say they are also concerned because two
other teachers were placed on administrative leave after talking with students
about suicide. The four teachers say it’s unclear what their two colleagues did
wrong.

Margie Wright, executive director of the Suicide and Crisis Center of North
Texas, said her group has provided intervention programs in schools but was
unaware of the Spence situation.

She said school districts should follow specific procedures after a suicide.
Among the suggestions: Activate a school’s crisis response team, give staff a
list of referral resources and remind them of risk factors and warning
signs.

“You have to have quite a bit of intervention for kids,” Wright said.

Nationwide, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death for all people,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall suicide
rate declined in the 1990s, but the rate steadily increased from 2000 to 2010.
In 2010, the suicide rate was the highest in 17 years.

In Dallas County, 10 people ages 8 to 19 committed suicide last year,
according to records received in an open records request from the Dallas County
medical examiner’s office. The 10 cases excludes people whose official cause of
death hadn’t been determined.

A CDC survey found that 13 percent of middle school students said they had
tried to kill themselves in the previous year. Almost 17 percent of female
students had attempted suicide.

Both rates were the highest among 11 other metro areas included in the survey
conducted from October 2010 to February 2012. By comparison, 10.5 percent of
middle school students in Houston and 6.9 percent in San Francisco attempted
suicide.

Wright said one suicide can cause other teenagers to try to kill
themselves.

“There is concern with copycat suicides,” she said. “When kids get depressed,
they don’t normally look like you and I as adults. They look anxious and hyper
and not necessarily going to bed. Sometimes we miss it with kids because they
are up and active.”

The teachers who contacted The News in recent weeks said that the
turmoil at the school started Dec. 13. A seventh-grade girl, who was five days
shy of her 14th birthday, hanged herself in her East Dallas apartment. A boy
tried to kill himself at school the next week, they said.

When teachers returned for the new semester, administrators held a meeting
with staff, where they discussed suicide in general terms and showed figures on
the percentage of students who attempt suicide. It didn’t include specific
warning signs or advice for teachers, they said.

“I brought up in a meeting that they should have training and break-out
sessions in staggered assemblies to help staff and students,” a teacher said. “I
have no idea how to proceed except to be as available as I can for my students.
As far as anything else, I am not equipped to handle children with truly
life-threatening challenges and no assistance to help.”

Guides for schools on what to do after a suicide stress the importance of
distributing accurate information to people quickly. As soon as possible after a
suicide, administrators should hold a meeting with staff and then have daily
debriefings the following week after school. When students ask uncomfortable
questions -- How did he die? -- teachers should be honest but not gruesome. Teachers are
also encouraged to have students talk about suicide prevention with friends.
Schools should also create rooms for staff and students to meet with
counselors.

But the guides say schools need to be extremely careful in how they respond,
making sure they don’t mistakenly glamorize a student’s suicide. Flags shouldn’t
be flown at half-staff. There shouldn’t be memorials or T-shirts made
remembering the student. If anything along those lines, schools should encourage
staff and students to donate money to a suicide hotline.

In the past two months, five Spence students have attempted suicide, the
teachers said. Four of them are friends.

The mother of one of those students said she is worried about the suicide
attempts. She has tried to stay vigilant and urged other parents to be on alert.
The mother’s name is being withheld to protect her daughter’s privacy.

She said her 12-year-old daughter was depressed and began cutting herself
after the girl’s death in December. The mother counseled her daughter and took
her to see a Catholic clergy member, but she still attempted suicide. The mother
found her passed out in a self-service laundry restroom after taking pills.

Last week, another girltried to commit suicide with pills,
the mother said in Spanish. “My daughter took two pills away from her,” she
said. “I told her, ‘Good, she should not be taking them.’ ”

The mother said she has struggled with what her daughter and her friends have
done. “It is stupid to take your life,” she said. “Life is beautiful. There is
so much in front of you. They need to study and graduate. The child who took her
life should have sought help. For everything, there is a solution.”

As for the parents, she said: “You need to understand your children. They are
going through adolescence. They enter rebellion. But you have to constantly be
with them and talk to them, see what worries them, what they are interested
in.”

Staff writer Julieta Chiquillo contributed to this
report.

HOW TO HELP: Signs to watch for

Suicide is one of the top causes of death among Texas teenagers, according to
the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. The Dallas-based organization says
parents, teachers and caregivers should look for some of the following warning
signs: